Taylor parked outside Alice Green’s house and stopped the engine. Alice opened the door before Taylor had even reached the path leading up to the house. “I knew you’d come,” she said, smiling. “I’ll put the kettle on. The bees have been busy too, so we can have fresh honey. I hope it’s all right this time.”
She seemed quite cheerful. Taylor felt slightly sick: how was she going to tell this nice old lady that her best friend had been pushed over a cliff in her car? She followed Alice through to the kitchen, where the jackdaw was preening the feathers of its broken wing in the cage by the window.
“I’m afraid I have some bad news.” Taylor came straight to the point.
“Milly’s dead, isn’t she?” Alice put two tea cups on a tray along with some slices of bread and honey.
“I’m afraid so. It’s been confirmed. She was inside the car when it went over the cliff. It looks like her body was washed out to sea.”
“Oh my.” Alice’s face went pale. Taylor was afraid she was going to faint.
“I’m all right.” Alice poured some hot water into a teapot, but her hands were shaking.
“Let me help you with that.” Taylor took the tray from her. “I know this is hard, but I have to ask you a few more questions.”
“Of course.”
“You said you last saw Milly on Friday evening?”
“That’s right. Milly helped me to pack the honey and she left around seven. She had to finish off some baking.”
“And she seemed fine to you? There wasn’t anything bothering her?”
“She was getting over a cold. That’s all I can think of.”
“And she didn’t mention that something was troubling her?”
“No, and she would have. Milly tells me everything.” Alice poured two cups of tea. Her hands had stopped shaking.
“Why are you asking me all this again?” she said. “You’re not thinking she did herself in, are you?”
“No, there’s no doubt about that. The car was helped over the edge.”
“Somebody pushed her over a cliff?” Alice seemed shocked. “Who on earth would do such a terrible thing?”
“We don’t know yet.” Taylor took a sip of tea. “But we’ll get to the bottom of all this, I promise.”
They sat in silence for a while. The only sound in the kitchen came from the jackdaw’s cage. It was frantically pecking one of its feet.
“Forty-two years,” Alice said, “forty-two years I’ve known Milly Lancaster. She was at my wedding. Me and Stanley. A match made in heaven.” She stared out of the window. “My arse,” she added, “if you’ll pardon my French.”
“Where’s your husband now?” Taylor asked.
“Stanley?” Alice looked slightly flustered. “Your guess is as good as mine. He walked out ten years ago. I haven’t seen him since.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not,” Alice said. She sounded calmer again. “What about you? A pretty young girl like you must have somebody in your life.”
“No, there’s nobody.”
“There will be, you mark my words, but watch out — all men are liars. They promise the world and they always let you down. Give me the bees any day. Did you know that a bee will die for his queen if he has to? Without even thinking twice about it. That’s loyalty. No, men are worse than rats. Do you think the honey is all right? I still think it’s tasting a little odd.”
“Really, it seems fine to me. When Mrs Lancaster left your house on Friday, do you know if she went anywhere?”
“She headed straight home, I think. She needed to get ready for the market.”
“And you didn’t notice if she got in her car? You didn’t see her drive off?”
“No, Milly always parks by the pub. If she was going up to Merryhead, she wouldn’t have passed by my house anyway. Merryhead’s in the opposite direction.”
A knock on the door made the jackdaw rattle its cage.
“Who can that be now?” Alice stood up and went to the door. She returned a moment later with the two PC Whites in tow.
“We saw your car parked outside,” Eric said to Taylor.
“We haven’t found anything,” Thomas White added. “It seems that Milly Lancaster kept herself to herself. She very rarely went out. She even had her groceries delivered.”
“I could’ve told you all that,” Alice said. “I’m Milly’s best, and only, friend.”
“Sorry,” Taylor said, “these are two colleagues of mine. PCs Eric and Thomas White.”
“White and White?” Alice stared at the two constables. “I can see the resemblance.”
“What now?” Eric White asked Taylor, ignoring the observation he’d heard many times before.
“We leave Mrs Green in peace.”
“My dad used to keep bees,” said Thomas.
“Good for him,” said Alice, showing them to the door.
* * *
Taylor stopped her car on the grass at the top of Merryhead and made sure the handbrake was on. Even though she had parked a good distance away from the edge of the cliff, the ground sloped down and the edge felt very near. She got out and gazed at the Atlantic. She could see a line of cargo vessels in the distance and the small silhouette of a sailing boat closer to land. The wind had torn down the police tape, and it now flapped loosely from metal poles. The forensic technicians had gone over every inch of where Milly Lancaster’s car had been parked before it had gone over the cliff.
She wondered what had gone through Milly’s mind as the car had started to roll towards the edge of the cliff. What was it like to realise you have only a few seconds left to live? Inevitably, her thoughts drifted off to the day of her husband’s accident. Her legs started to tremble and she had to sit down on the grass.
She stared out to sea and tried to regulate her breathing. She watched as a lone gull folded its wings and plummeted into the water. It surfaced a few seconds later empty-handed. She went on staring at the sea for quite some time. Eventually, she plucked up the courage to risk standing up again. Concentrate, she told herself, as she got to her feet slowly.
Her vision went blurry for a few seconds but soon steadied. She took a last look over the cliff and got back in her car.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Alice Green finished reading the article about Nosema Apis in the Beekeepers Quarterly. It hadn’t done anything to lift her spirits — whole colonies of bees were being wiped out by the disease and the author of the article believed the future of beekeeping looked bleak. She fed the jackdaw and went outside to the back garden.
Her heart almost stopped as she saw what had happened underneath the hollyhock bushes. It looked as if a wild animal, probably a fox, had dug up a large amount of the soil and now a dirty arm was clearly visible. Alice recognised the shirt the arm was wrapped in. It had been Stanley’s favourite black-and-white checked shirt. He’d worn it for years.
This can’t go on.
She wondered if it was time to tell the police — she had made a promise to Milly, after all — but then again it would only spell trouble. The police would start asking all kinds of questions, especially after what had happened to Milly.
No, Alice thought, there’s only one thing to do. Stanley’s body must remain hidden, one way or another.
She fetched the spade and started to dig next to the body. The bees buzzed around her head as she worked. When she had enough to cover the mess the fox had made, she shovelled the soil onto the exposed arm. It was only a temporary measure, of course. The fox was bound to come back. She would have to find some way to dig up her husband and dispose of his body for good, somewhere far away, but that would take a bit of careful planning, and she had neither the time nor the energy for that at the moment.